Intentions to Marry, 1906 Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840431, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1906 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay (1906a), Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1906b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1906c).

Page 401

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1906 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodghins

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

350

27 April 1906

William Dew
Helen Hamilton

William Dew
Helen Hamilton
💍 1906/1052

Widower
Spinster

Settler

65
51

Wellington
Wellington

55 years
30 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

06/2398

27 April 1906

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	350
Date of Notice	27 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Dew	Helen Hamilton
	💍 1906/1052
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	65	51
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	55 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2398
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

351

30 April 1906

Howel Edward Gunter
Leonie Ellen Dawe Smith

Howel Edward Gunter
Leonie Ellen Dawe Smith
💍 1906/3337

Bachelor
Spinster

Professor of Music

35
24

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
5 days

St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

06/3276

30 April 1906

Rev. G. Y. Woodward

No	351
Date of Notice	30 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howel Edward Gunter	Leonie Ellen Dawe Smith
	💍 1906/3337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Professor of Music
Age	35	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	06/3276
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Woodward

352

30 April 1906

George Wilson Mills
Sarah Charlotte Ward

George Wilson Mills
Sarah Charlotte Ward
💍 1906/1113

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
31 years

St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington

06/2450

30 April 1906

Rev. R. Coffey

No	352
Date of Notice	30 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Wilson Mills	Sarah Charlotte Ward
	💍 1906/1113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	31 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church, Sussex Square, Wellington
Folio	06/2450
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Coffey

353

30 April 1906

Elijah John Ellis
Mary Mary Blanchfield

Elijah John Ellis
May Mary Blanchfield
💍 1906/1053

Widower
Widow

Bootmaker

43
44

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
13 years

Registrars Office, Wellington

06/2399

30 April 1906

G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

No	353
Date of Notice	30 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Elijah John Ellis	Mary Mary Blanchfield
BDM Match (98%)	Elijah John Ellis	May Mary Blanchfield
	💍 1906/1053
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	43	44
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Wellington
Folio	06/2399
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1906
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodghins, Deputy Registrar

354

30 April 1906

Lancelot Meredith Theodore McMaugh
Minnie Thomas

Lanucelot Meredith Therdon McMaugh
Minnie Thomas
💍 1906/1103

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

15 months
5 days

St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington

06/2447

30 April 1906

Rev. G. P. Dawes

No	354
Date of Notice	30 April 1906
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lancelot Meredith Theodore McMaugh	Minnie Thomas
BDM Match (94%)	Lanucelot Meredith Therdon McMaugh	Minnie Thomas
	💍 1906/1103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	06/2447
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 April 1906
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. P. Dawes

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).